1. Technical Field
Exemplary embodiments of this disclosure relate to an image forming apparatus and more specifically to an image forming apparatus including a recording head to eject liquid droplets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses are used as printers, facsimile machines, copiers, plotters, or multifunction devices having two or more of the foregoing capabilities. As one type of image forming apparatuses employing a liquid-ejection recording method, for example, inkjet recording apparatuses are known that use a recording head(s) for ejecting droplets of liquid (e.g., ink).
Such image forming apparatuses may have a maintenance unit (maintenance-and-recovery unit) including caps to cap nozzle faces of recording heads. When the image forming apparatus is on standby for printing or a cover is opened to open the inside of an apparatus body to the outside, the caps cap and protect the nozzle faces of the recording heads.
To facilitate maintenance work of a service person, for example, JP-2000-326525-A proposes an inkjet recording apparatus that allows a service person to forcefully replace ink cartridges and conduct maintenance work when the service person turns the power on with a maintenance switch turned on.
For such an inkjet-type image forming apparatus, for example, when the apparatus is left unused for a long time, ink may firmly adhere to the nozzle faces of the recording heads, thus causing skewed ejection or non-ejection of droplets. Hence, for example, a wet cleaner may be provided to clean the nozzle faces and remove such firmly-adhering ink.
However, for the above-described inkjet recording apparatus, as described above, the nozzle faces are capped with the caps during standby and so forth, thus hampering a service person from easily checking and cleaning the nozzle faces of the recording heads.